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Category: Microsoft Office

Software / Microsoft Office Category

Microsoft Office 365

Office when and where you need it

Work anywhere, anytime, on any device. Office 365 is ready when you are.

Your go-to Office—anywhere

Whether you’re working in your office or on the go, you get a familiar, top-of-the-line set of productivity tools. Office applications—always the latest versions—let you create, edit, and share from your PC/Mac or your iOS, Android™, or Windows device with anyone in real time.

Tools for the professional

Brand your business-class email address with your company name to build name recognition, and market your business with customized marketing materials that are easy to create. Connect better with customers and colleagues with a range of communication tools, fromemail and IM to social networking and video conferencing.

Tools for teamwork

With 1 TB of storage per user, you’ll have plenty of space for all your files. Plus, because your files are stored online, you can share with people in or outside your company, from wherever you’re working, whenever you need to. And with multi-party HD video, content sharing, and shared calendars, you’ll always be in sync with your team.

Easy setup and management

With step-by-step guidance, you can set up users easily and start using the services fast. You can access the easy-to-use admin center from anywhere to manage all your services. And Office 365 takes care of IT for you, so your services are always up and running and up to date.

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The all new Office 2016.

Do your best work with Office 2016 applications. New features make it easier to create, share, and work together wherever you are, across your favorite devices.

Office 2016 Built for teamwork

Built for teamwork

Office 2016 reduces the friction in co-creation, making it easier to share documents, work together, and use coauthoring, IM, voice and video to get things done.

Works for you

Produce professional documents fast with intelligent suggestions, information, and insights at just the right time.

The most secure Office

Store and share with confidence. With 1 TB of OneDrive for Business storage, you have the built-in, secured way to store and share all of your stuff.

The Office you know and love with new applications–across your favorite devices

Across devices

Access your documents and work whenever and wherever—with full fidelity viewing and editing—from your PC or Mac to your Windows, Apple®, and Android™ phones and tablets.

Coauthoring

Work together like never before in Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Real-time typing in Word1 lets you see others’ edits as they happen.

Online meetings

Work like you’re all in one room, even when you’re not. Use Skype for Business for HD video conferencing2, coauthoring, desktop sharing, presentations, and IM to run your meetings from anywhere.

Smart attachments

Attach documents stored in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint to an email and Outlook will automatically configure permissions for mail recipients and store the latest version in one place.

Office 2016 gives IT more control and better performance

Office 2016

Centralized control

Data loss protection, multi-factor authentication, and rights management gives admins centralized control over key security, privacy, and compliance capabilities.

Flexible click-to-run deployment

IT now has more control over how and when updates are distributed, with enhanced distribution and network traffic management.

Improved Outlook performance

Enhanced connectivity, better network performance, and faster email download equal happier users and fewer help desk calls.

Have questions?

Get help from IT Experts/Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner
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Microsoft will let you unlock Windows 10 with your face

Hello
With a quick glance at your Windows 10 laptop, you’ll be able to unlock it — without entering a password.

Microsoft introduced the latest new feature for Windows 10, called Windows Hello. The security tool will let you access your PC through facial recognition, an iris scan or a read of your fingerprint.

But before you get ready for your closeup, you’ll need get some special equipment — most PCs don’t come with biometric scanners installed (though some do). Windows Hello is primarily targeted at businesses and government agencies.

Microsoft opted not to rely on your webcam for facial recognition because the photos it captures are not terribly secure, and they’re easy to spoof. Instead, Microsoft got infrared cameras to do facial recognition for Windows Hello.

Facial recognition is possible on a low-grade camera. Google allows its Android phones to be unlocked with facial recognition, but the company warns that someone with a photo of you — or even someone who looks like you — will be able to unlock your phone too.

With the proper tools, faces, irises and fingerprints are possible to spoof, but it’s not easy — someone’s got to really want to break in to your PC to go through the trouble.

Microsoft opted for more robust security in Windows 10, because it wants to meet strict standards that companies and government agencies impose for secure logins. Microsoft said Windows Hello has a 1 in 100,000 false accept rate, which is very high. It’s a lot safer than a password, which, as we know, can easily be forgotten, lost, stolen or hacked.

Though it’s not necessarily aimed at the average PC buyer, consumers will be able to use the Windows Hello feature too.

Microsoft promised “plenty of exciting new Windows 10 devices to choose from which will support Windows Hello.” And if your PC already has a fingerprint reader, you’ll be able to login with a fingerprint scan.

Passport: Windows 10 will also support another new security feature, codenamed “Passport,” which lets you login to participating websites, apps or networks without a password. Microsoft said the list of sites and apps that support Passport is growing, but it didn’t say how many participate.

Microsoft is trying to position Passport as the end of passwords. Since you never enter a password to enter a website, “there is no shared password stored on their servers for a hacker to potentially compromise,” says Microsoft boldly in its press release.

But that’s not quite true. Passwords will still exist. Even if you can login to your email via Passport from your work PC, you’ll still need a password to login from your iPad. So passwords aren’t going away anytime soon — and they’ll still be stored on email providers’ servers, which means hackers could potentially still grab them in a cyberattack.

The primary way that Passport ensures that you’re you is through Windows Hello. Oddly, however, you can also enter a PIN into Passport, which is significantly less secure than a password.

Still, it’s about time that something replaces passwords, and Hello and Passport are good starts.

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What’s new (and still to come) in Microsoft’s Office 2016 for Windows

Microsoft’s Office 2016 suite for Windows 7, 8 and 10 PCs and tablets is available since September 22, 2015. Here’s what’s new and what’s still to come for Office users.

 

Microsoft made a first public preview of the suite — which runs on Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 PCs and laptops — back in March of 2015. Testers had been working with private previews of the suite since 2014.

The full Office for Windows 2016 suite includes new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Project, Visio and Access.

There are not a lot of major new features in this release. Microsoft’s main focus with the new version of Office for Windows has been on adding team-collaboration functionality. Among some of the new features in the suite are coauthoring for Word, PowerPoint and OneNote; real-time typing in Word; new integrated Power BI publishing functionality in Excel; and updated search and navigational capabilities in Outlook.

Users who subscribe via Office 365 consumer and/or business plans which include rights to the Office apps also get will get additional, supplemental services and features, including Microsoft’s Sway digital-storytelling app/service; new Office 365 Groups functionality; and more.

As is the case with Windows 10, Microsoft is planning to fill out some of the partially baked Office 2016 features in the suite with regular updates in the coming months. Microsoft is still working on improving and syncing its OneDrive online-storage service. The promised new sync clients for Windows and Mac are due later this year. Built-in coauthoring for the other Office 2016 apps beyond Word is also still in the works. And Enterprise Data Protection, a security feature that Microsoft has promised for Windows 10, also will be coming for Office 2016 for Windows in early 2016, and the Office Mobile apps later this year, company officials said.

Starting with the Office 2016 for Windows release, Microsoft is moving to a new servicing model for Office 365 which is similar to the one it has put in place for Windows 10, with different servicing “branches” providing users with new Office features and fixes on a regular basis.

While on the subject of dates, here’s what Microsoft officials are saying in terms of availability for Office 2016 for Windows (and other related Office apps and services).

The Office 2016 apps are available in 40 languages starting today. Office 365 Office 2016subscribers can choose to download manually the new Office 2016 apps as part of their subscription starting today. Automatic updates of the Office 2016 apps will begin rolling out to consumer and small business subscribers in October 2015, and to commercial customers early next year. Office 2016 is also available today as a one-time purchase for both PCs and Macs.

Update:

A Microsoft spokesperson said MSDN subscribers will have access to both Office 2016 for Mac and Windows today, starting at about 9 am PT/noon ET. Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) availability for Office 2016 for Windows will be October 1. (VLSC customers got Office 2016 for Mac in August.)

Office 365 Planner, the lightweight project-management service (formerly codenamed “Highlander”), which Microsoft is building into its Office 365 business subscriptions, will be available in preview to Office 365 First Release customers starting next quarter. And GigJam — a new task-completion service which Microsoft demonstrated earlier this summer — is in private preview as of today, and will be available to Office 365 business subscribers in 2016.

Office 2016 for Windows and Office 2016 for Mac are Microsoft’s two fully-featured Office desktop suites. The company also offers a variety of universal’ and/or mobile Office mobile apps for iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets, Windows Phones and Windows PCs and tablets.

Have questions?

Get help from IT Experts/Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner
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Did you know? Mac Office 2011 support conks out on Oct. 10

End of support is sneaking up on enterprise employees running Office on a Mac

Companies that have employees running Office for Mac 2011 have just over 100 days to replace the suite’s applications with those from last year’s upgrade, Office for Mac 2016.

Support ends for Office for Mac 2011 on Oct. 10, a date that Microsoft first stamped on the calendar two years ago, but has not widely publicized since. As of that date, the Redmond, Wash., developer will cease supplying patches for security vulnerabilities or fixes for other bugs.

The individual applications — Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Word — will continue to operate after support ends, but companies will be taking a risk, however small, that malware exploiting an unpatched flaw will surface and compromise systems.

To receive security and non-security updates after Oct. 10, IT administrators must deploy Office for Mac 2016 or instruct workers covered by Office 365 to download and install the newer suite’s applications from the subscription service’s portal.

Office for Mac 2011’s end-of-support deadline was originally slated for January 2016, approximately five years after the productivity package’s release. But in the summer of 2015, when it was clear that 2011’s successor would not be ready by early 2016, Microsoft extended its lifespan by 21 months. At the time, Microsoft cited the long-standing policy of supporting a to-be-retired product for “2 years after the successor product is released” when it added time to 2011.

Mac users: Steerage Class

The impending cutoff for Office for Mac 2011 is an issue only because Microsoft shortchanges Office for Mac users. Unlike the Windows version of Office, which receives 10 years of security support, those that run on macOS are allotted half that. Microsoft has repeatedly classified Office for Mac as a consumer product to justify the half-measure, even for the edition labeled “Home and Business.”

Nor does Microsoft update and service Office for Mac for corporate customers as it does the far more popular Windows SKU (stock-keeping unit). The latter will be upgraded with new features, Microsoft said in April, twice each year for enterprise subscribers to Office 365 ProPlus, with each release supported for 18 months before giving way to a pair of successors.

Mac editions, however, are refreshed with new tools at irregular intervals, often long after the same feature debuts in the same Windows application. (Recently, for example, Microsoft added a delivery-and/or-read receipt option to the Mac version of Outlook; that functionality has been in Outlook on Windows since 2013.) And because there are no regular, large-scale feature upgrades to Office for Mac, support is not curtailed by the release schedule as with Windows.

The difference between Offices — the behemoth Windows on one side, the niche Mac on the other — has been put into even starker relief recently: Microsoft has adopted March and September dates for launching new upgrades to Windows 10, Office 365 ProPlus, and last week, Windows Server, but made no similar promises for Office for Mac 2016.

It’s clearly the odd app out.

Have questions?

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Microsoft 365 Business: Get Office + Windows 10 in one SMB-friendly subscription

Will preview $20/month software-as-a-service plan Aug. 2

Earlier this week, Microsoft introduced two additional software-as-a-service subscription plans to the partners who will try to sell them.

The pair join an increasing number of subscription deals that the Redmond, Wash. company has modeled on the Office 365 pattern. The new plans even carry the “365” label, which Microsoft sees as a unifying identifier.

Microsoft 365 is, as CEO Satya Nadella introduced it Monday, “a fundamental departure in how we think about product creation,” composed of, initially at least, two plans. The more expensive, Microsoft 365 Enterprise, is simply a new name for a year-old, two-tier product titled “Secure Productive Enterprise E3” and “Secure Productive Enterprise E5.” Those SKUs (stock-keeping units) were introduced at Microsoft’s 2016 partner conference. Like SPE, M365 Enterprise tosses Windows 10 Enterprise, Office 365 and Enterprise Mobility + Security into a bucket.

But “Microsoft 365 Business,” or M365 Business for short, is the more interesting of the two plans because it is actually new. Nadella thought the same. “I’m so excited about the product innovation that you will see today around small and medium-sized businesses,” he said during a two-hour keynote before partners.

So, what’s Microsoft 365 Business?

That’s the new deal Microsoft will push later this year after an unspecified time in preview, which will start Aug. 2.

M365 Business includes:

Office 365 Business Premium, a software-and-service plan that includes all the Office applications, hosted Exchange email, OneDrive storage service and more. Alone, Office 365 Business Premium costs $12.50 per user per month when billed on an annual basis.

Windows 10 Pro: Devices currently running Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8.1 Pro may be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro under M365 Business.

Windows 10 Business: According to Microsoft, “Windows 10 Business is a set of cloud-[based] services and device management capabilities that complement Windows 10 Pro and enable the centralized management and security controls of Microsoft 365 Business.” The services and tools include a subset of those from Intune, Microsoft’s enterprise mobility management (EMM) platform, as well as Windows AutoPilot, an automated deployment service bundled with Windows 10’s March 2017 feature upgrade, aka 1703 and Creators Update.

How much does M365 Business cost?

$20 per user per month when it launches later this year.

That’s $7.50 per user per month more than Office 365 Business Premium, or an extra $90 per user annually. For that amount, customers receive the difference between the two plans: the upgrade to Windows 10 Pro and the various management service components.

Who is Microsoft 365 Business for?

According to Microsoft, the plan is “built for small and midsize customers that have little to no IT resources on staff.”

Although companies of any size can purchase M365 Business licenses, any one customer can buy no more than 300 subscriptions, another signal that it aims at small and medium-sized organizations.

The limited management tools also play to that theme. They’re designed to be easy to use and offer only basic functionality, and are accessed via simple control panels similar to what they may have already used for Office 365.

What’s the Windows 10 upgrade all about in M365 Business?

Microsoft’s descriptions of this component are sketchy thus far. An extensive company Q&A on the subscription plan had the most information, saying, “If you have devices that are licensed for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 Professional, Microsoft 365 Business provides an upgrade to Windows 10 Pro.” (The “Professional” label holds for Windows 7, but 8 and 8.1 are dubbed “Pro” instead, as is Windows 10.)

Computerworld was unable to unearth additional details of the upgrade, specifically what happens when a customer cancels a M365 Business subscription or lets one expire. Do devices that were upgraded from Windows 7 Professional to Windows 10 Pro retain the latter license? Or is the Windows 10 license revoked, forcing customers to reinstall the previous OS?

Microsoft declined to answer questions about that scenario, and analysts who had been briefed by the company said that licensing issues were not discussed in Microsoft’s presentation.

The matter of expiring subscriptions requires context. Generally, when customers exit a subscription, say, Office 365, the applications and services will retreat into a reduced functionality mode or stop working entirely. Something similar happens after a subscription to Windows 10 Enterprise E3 or E5 lapses. “When a subscription license expires … the Windows 10 Enterprise device seamlessly steps back down to Windows 10 Pro,” Microsoft states in a support document.

In other instances, Microsoft doesn’t strip away an upgrade. Customers who have subscribed to Windows 10 Enterprise E3 or E5 may upgrade devices equipped with Windows 7 Professional or 8.1 Pro, to Windows 10 Pro; if they later depart the E3 or E5 plan, the Windows 10 license permanently remains in place.

Which of these options remains — cancellation or retention — is what’s unclear in the case of M365 Business.

What management tools does M365 Business include?

Enough, says Microsoft, to adequately serve small and mid-sized businesses.

What Microsoft calls “a simplified management console” controls device and user management functions. The tools bundled in M365 Business include:

  • Auto-install (and easy uninstall) Office
  • Wipe company data from devices, both company- and employee-owned
  • Enforce user settings on devices, including access to Windows Store or use of Cortana
  • Force users to save all work to OneDrive for Business
  • Configure new PCs as well as existing systems running Windows 10 Pro 1703 (Creators Update) or later using AutoPilot
  • Automatically update and upgrade Windows 10 PCs using Windows Update for Business

We heard there’s a preview of M365 Business. What’s that deal?

Yes, there will be a preview available starting, Microsoft’s said, on Wednesday, Aug. 2. The preview will be accessible from this website. Users may, in fact, sign up now for the preview on that page.

Although there is no charge for the preview, Microsoft recommended that potential customers contact their preferred Microsoft Partner — or locate one — to handle the M365 Business deployment.

Interestingly, Microsoft said, “Devices running Windows 7 [Professional] or 8.1 Pro are eligible for an upgrade to Windows 10 Pro within the Microsoft 365 Business preview.” It was unclear whether that upgrade would be retained or retracted at the end of the preview.

What does M365 Business require?

According to Microsoft, Windows 7 Professional PCs “likely meet the minimum requirements.” However, only Windows 10 devices can be managed in M365 Business, a powerful motivator for equipping as many systems as possible with the newer OS.

The other major precondition for the subscription — Azure Active Directory (AAD) — is necessary to enforce user and device policies set in the management console, and for other tasks, such as AutoPilot set-up. Microsoft acknowledged that on-premises Active Directory works with M365 Business, but “it is not recommended.”

Have questions?

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Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LL C is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

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Microsoft Office for iPad is here!

ipad-office

Edit, work, create, and get more done from your iPad, for free

ipad-office3

Four new, free apps are available on your iPad®. With both Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox access, online storage—and access to your files—is always just a click away on your iPad. The new Microsoft Office apps give you the ability to flat out get more done.

  • With the new Microsoft Word app, you can edit, create, and save your docs, wherever work takes you
  • The new Excel app lets you analyze your data on the fly
  • Build and deliver your presentations—right from your tablet or phone—with the new PowerPoint app
  • The new Microsoft OneNote app helps you work collaboratively and stay organized on the go

With these apps, you can now access, edit, and save directly to your Dropbox account. You can even open and edit files that have already been saved in Dropbox.

Adding Dropbox is easy.  When you are in any of the new apps, follow these simple steps:

1. Tap on the arrow in the top left, then tap Open
2. Tap “Add a Place”
3. Select Dropbox

To get the Office apps for iPad®, open www.appstore.com/microsoftoffice from your iPad’s web browser.

 

Microsoft Office 2013 End of Life: What You Need to Know

Microsoft Office 2013 was a popular productivity suite that included several essential tools such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. It was released in 2013 and was widely used by individuals, businesses, and organizations of all sizes. However, like all software products, Microsoft Office 2013 has reached its end of life, and users are now advised to upgrade to Microsoft 365, the cloud-based version of Microsoft Office.

drawing of a man holding a laptop in front of a very large laptop with "update" on the screen and a wrench in front

What Does End of Support Mean?

End of life, or EOL, refers to the point in time when a software product is no longer supported by the manufacturer. In the case of Microsoft Office 2013, this means that Microsoft will no longer provide technical support, bug fixes, security updates, or new features for this product. This makes the software more vulnerable to cyberattacks, viruses, and malware. Continuing to use Microsoft Office 2013 after the end of life date could result in data loss, security breaches, and other serious problems.

  • This means that Microsoft will no longer provide any updates or support for this software product beyond this date. Users who continue to use Microsoft Office 2013 after this date do so at their own risk.

If you’re using Office 2013, it’s probably a good time to upgrade your version of Microsoft Office.

Upgrade Options

The best way to protect yourself and your organization is to upgrade to a newer version of Office:

  • Cloud upgrade: Subscriptions to Microsoft 365
  • Box Version: Microsoft Home And Business 2021

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is an all-in-one cloud solution with a number of different licensing options to fit your organization’s needs. The best part about cloud-based applications is that you no longer have to worry about retirements, patches, and end of support. Cloud licenses are automatically updated with new features, new applications, and security updates. Many cloud subscriptions also include installed (or desktop) versions of the application, so you can have the same look and feel of the Office applications you are accustomed to using, but built with more robust features and benefits.

Microsoft Home And Business 2021

Office Home and Business 2021 is for families and small businesses who want classic Office apps and email. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook for Windows 11 and Windows 10. A one-time purchase installed on 1 PC or Mac for use at home or work.

 

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Get an early look at the new Office 365 admin center

Tracking and reporting activity in Office 365 using the built-in admin tools is about to get much better. Here’s what the revamped admin center has to offer.

Office365adminSJTechies

Gathering usage information about Microsoft Office 365 in an enterprise is limited by the available admin tools. To make matters worse, as Microsoft adds new applications to Office 365, the ability to track if, and how, users were consuming the new features has been even more difficult. But with the rollout of the new Office 365 admin center in March 2016, those limitations are quickly disappearing.

Reporting

At first glance, you may think the main activity for any Office 365 admin is adding and subtracting employees from the active roster. But a good admin should be doing much more.

As the number of applications in Office 365 has grown substantially in recent years, the need to track all Office 365 activity has also grown. This need to track activity is especially important in larger enterprises where mishandled resources can raise overall costs significantly.

For example, knowing how many employees actually use Yammer on a weekly basis, and when, could help admins predict when resources will be taxed the most. Or tracking how users are actually using collaboration tools like Skype and Delve may lead an admin to conclude that more training on those applications is needed because the apps are underutilized. These are the sort of questions the new Office 365 admin center is looking to answer.

By simplifying the interface and creating ready-to-use dashboards, Microsoft is trying to streamline the reporting process. Tracking email activity and other peak usage data is just a few clicks away. And as the new Office 365 admin center is rolled out, there will also be tools admins can use to create custom reports.

Speaking from personal experience, the new admin dashboard interface is a welcome improvement. Navigation in the new admin center closely matches the familiar navigation system of other Office 365 apps. The previous admin center, with its heavy use of linked text, looked almost tacked on as an afterthought.

officeadmin365-SJTechies

Rollout

The new Office 365 admin center is rolling out in the United States right now and will be the default reporting experience very soon. The new center will roll out to other parts of the world in April 2016.

If you’re not ready for the change, you can roll back to the old admin system during this introductory phase. On the other hand, if you’re anxious for a change, you can click the Get A Sneak Peek link at the top of the old Office 365 admin center to force the installation of the new system.

Bottom line

For most users, administering Office 365 is someone else’s responsibility, but that does not diminish its importance to an enterprise.

A good admin should be able to track what activity is taking place within Office 365 and, more important, what activity is not taking place. Knowing who uses what applications for how long, and when, is essential information. Armed with that knowledge, administrators can determine how to better allocate resources and where new training for users may be required.

With the rollout of the new Office 365 admin center, Microsoft is using feedback received from its customers to create tools and dashboards that it hopes will make the tracking of vital activity data in Office 365 an easily achieved reality.

Have questions?

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Surface Book: Microsoft just made the PC cool again

The Microsoft Surface Book is the computer you always wanted to have but couldn’t. So now that it is here, will you buy it?

surface-4-surface-book

The latest line of Microsoft Surface personal computers is now available from both the virtual and the bricks-and-mortar Microsoft Store. By most accounts, the Surface Pro 4 and the flagship Surface Book offer impressive performance without sacrificing style or that illusive awe factor typically missing from PCs in general.

With the Surface Book in particular, Microsoft is attempting to change the narrative of the personal computer—to change perceptions in the marketplace. The Surface Book is an aspirational computer and it is intended to inspire desire in the overall PC and computing device market.

Strategic reasons

There are some solid strategic reasons why Microsoft has brought the Surface Book to market.

Giving OEMs a reference for their own hardware and increasing participation in Microsoft cloud services and the ecosystem that goes with it are certainly notable goals of the Surface Book.

But there is even more to it than that.

Hardware

It is important to understand the hardware inside the Microsoft Surface Book. These are the technical specifications of a powerful computing device. You do not buy a Surface Book so your kids can watch movies in the car while you run errands.

With a high resolution screen, SSD storage up to 1TB, up to 16GB RAM, an Intel I5 or I7 CPU, and a customized discreet GPU from Nvidia, the Surface Book is designed for performance and productivity. This is some serious computing power delivered in a small package.

Of course, that power comes at a premium price, but that is where the aspirational part of the strategy comes into play. Microsoft knows it will not sell millions upon millions of Surface Books. That is not its purpose. Instead, Microsoft wants millions upon millions of people to want a Surface Book—to aspire to own one someday.

Microsoft wants the Surface Book to be the notebook computer you would buy if money were not an issue. It wants the Surface Book to be a status symbol PC.

Marketing

This is a bold move by Microsoft and it goes hand-in-hand with the “PC does what?” marketing campaign produced in conjunction with its OEM partners like Dell and Lenovo. These companies are trying to make PCs cool again. They are trying to steal some of the thunder so often associated with Apple.

And while the “PC does what?” campaign gets mocked, mostly by fans of Apple, it is more effective than many believe. Remember the Mac versus PC commercials? People often mocked those as inaccurate oversimplifications of fact, but they still seemed to elevate the “cool” factor of the Mac. It didn’t matter what everyone thought of them; what mattered was the perception they produced.


Bottom line

The Microsoft Surface Book sets a high bar for every other notebook computer that comes to market. Microsoft has carefully crafted a powerful computer with hardware, features, and style no other company can currently match. In a single stroke, Microsoft has made owning a PC cool again. It has made the Windows 10 ecosystem cool again.

Let’s punctuate the point with anecdotal evidence. A number of people have spent much of their professional lives complaining about Microsoft and PCs. They have been working in the Apple’s ecosystem and hating every minute of it. They have been looking for more than what Apple offers for years now. The day Microsoft announced the Surface Book, they ordered one. They haven’t been this excited about buying a computer for a decade.

With this lineup of Surface products, Microsoft has changed the tide and established market momentum. It will be interesting to see how Google and Apple respond. We should see some serious competition now. It also wouldn’t be surprised to see a resurgence in Windows 10 mobile devices later this year. It looks to be an exciting time for consumers. Hang on to your hats.

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South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

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